Friday, November 3, 2017

Tomorrow I have my first photography session of the season. And as I was looking through my blog archive to share these pictures I realized that I never blogged them! Which is crazy because this was one of my favorite sessions last season. So I'm blogging them now, a year later. These are friends of ours and it was just so fun capturing this spunky sweet pair.

These pictures were taken at the Columbia County Library in Evans, GA and the park behind it.

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

The other day Daniel was putting in some low energy bulbs and I asked if we were going to ask our landlord to reimburse us for the bulbs since they are the kind that are supposed to last years and years and the ones we had previously hadn't burned out or anything - Daniel said something about how he didn't really care one way or the other because of the energy savings we would get in the meantime. I feel like something clicked with me when he said that.

The rental house we are living in now has been driving me crazy basically from week one. It has a lot of potential to be cute but a lot of the work that was done to renovate the house was done really carelessly, especially the latest paint job. It's awful.There are holes all over the walls and paint roller fuzziers everywhere. But I've been hesitant to do anything about it because I'm not confident about how long we'll be staying here and I hate putting in the work to fix rooms when I won't get any credit for it. Except for the satisfaction of having it look nice while we live here and that has finally started to mean something.

At the same time I've been dreaming of buying a fixer-upper some day, and to be honest I'm kind of practicing now.

So my very first project at our house is to replace the truly awful popcorn ceiling that has been falling down on us in pieces ever since we moved in nearly two years ago. I'm really not much of a handyman or a DIY queen. It took me several months to paint my girl's bedroom in the last home we owned. Their furniture stayed in the center of the room for weeks waiting for me to put on the second coat of paint. So this is kind of a big deal.

I read this tutorial which I thought was super helpful and I'll be referencing it several times.

Our ceiling has been flaking a little bit at a time for nearly two years. It's been seriously driving me crazy!!

Step 1: Spray

The tutorial I linked above suggested spraying the whole room down first. I couldn't imagine doing that and just worked one small section at a time spraying a most of just plain water. It worked great for me.

Step 2: Scrape

This is my daughter helping me scrape the popcorn ceiling off with a plastic spatula. It worked fantastically well. You can get these for at the dollar store. I have several so I used this one. I thought it might be ruined from this but not at all. Also including my bigger kiddos on this project was awesome. I'd highly recommend it. This felt like a no-fail step to the project and it gave me time to bond with them.

Step 3: Wipe

Next I wiped the area off with an old kitchen rag. This helped get off anything that the spatula had missed. I repeated these steps in little sections of the ceiling until all of the popcorn plaster was off.

The tutorial had suggested protective eye wear and I agree. That would have been a really good thing. I tried to keep the plaster wet so that there was minimal dust but it was a crazy messy job.

I tried to use a sheet to contain the mess but I'm not sure that it helped. I can not overstate the fact that this made a HUGE mess. I think it took me about an hour to scrape the ceiling and about two hours to clean up the mess that I'd made.

Also, it goes without saying, yet I didn't do this - be sure to clean out your area completely before starting this. I thought I would do this a little bit at a time and didn't really love things out of the bathroom until stuff started to get crazy messy in there. Next time I'll know better and just clean the space out first so there is less to clean later.

Also we made a mess on our carpet. It vacuumed up fine but like I said - this project is so messy. If you are having your kiddos help out make sure that they know not to track plaster into the carpet or lay down some sheets/old towels to try to help contain the mess.

If you're thinking about a bathroom renovation and are considering scraping off your popcorn ceiling I'd say go for it! It was very do-able and now I'm more motivated than ever to get the rest of the bathroom painted etc. since I spent so much time cleaning it and was close enough to notice all of the little things that drive me crazy about this bathroom.

This is what the ceiling looks like now!! I really love that there is no more popcorn ceiling hanging down. Can't wait to get this finished.

Monday, March 20, 2017

This sweet mom reached out to me over Facebook a couple of weeks ago asking if I could do a quick session so that she would have some good photos to bring to the son they are adopting from overseas. I was so happy we could work something out between both of our busy schedules because they were an absolute delight to photograph and I am so super happy with how their pictures turned out.

Are you thinking about maybe one day in the not too distant future that you might like to be able to photograph a session like this? Well I've written a series of classes just for you which I will be launching in the summer and fall. Interested? Click here to fill out a super-quick survey.

Monday, March 6, 2017

One of God's sweetest blessings in my life at the moment is the new friends I've made at our new church and at the top of that list is this sweet lady right here. Jessica writes a blog full of encouragement for the weary soul. When I mentioned on Facebook that I was offering to take some family photographs this sweet lady was quick to ask me to photograph her family. They were so easy to work with - their love for each other shines through in these images.

Are you thinking about maybe one day in the not too distant future that you might like to be able to photograph a session like this? Well I've written a series of classes just for you which I will be launching in the summer and fall. Interested? Click here to fill out a super-quick survey.

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

This moment - it was an amazing moment for me. It was my very first in person photography class at my best friend's house. I'd been teaching online classes for a few years but after awhile it just didn't fit into my life. I thought that maybe this was something I would never do again. Life has been crazy insane this past year. Growing our family has been a beautiful difficult season. Homeschooling has been the best, hardest thing I have ever done. But the seasons are changing...

Que a drumroll and all of the glitter cannons.

I am teaching photography classes again!!!

I am taking the rest of the school year to re-write my materials then I'll be offering classes to mamas and I'll also be launching a series of classes for kids. I will be hosting classes online and also in-person here in the Augusta, Georgia area in the summer.

In order to best serve you I have put together a quick little survey to find out what would be the most helpful to you. Here is the link to the survey. Thanks so much!! I can't wait to meet you soon.

Thursday, December 22, 2016

I don't know about you but I am terrible at sending Christmas cards. Every year I think I am going to do it and every year, about this time of the year, I realize that it's just not going to happen. This year maybe I'll get around to sending out some holiday cards after all now that I know about with Greenvelope, an online design store that is changing the way families everywhere send holiday invitations, greeting cards and notes.

Each design is customizable to fit your personality. Once you’re finished, send your holiday greetings or party invite with one click, instantly delivering your season’s greetings. Also, because it is all online it is a more frugal option and better for the environment. But who am I kidding, I just like this because it's perfect for procrastinators!

One of the things I was impressed with about Greenvelope are the gorgeous professional designs. As a photographer there is nothing more annoying to me than to see beautiful family photos in a poorly designed card. No worries with this site. All of the designs are terrific.

Here are just a few of my favorite card designs.
Can’t settle on just one holiday photo? (I never can.) The Very Merry grid design template is perfect for you. Feature up to 4 pictures with this photo collage design.

If you’re hosting a holiday party, Greenvelope has many design templates for you to choose from. The Ugly Sweater Party Invitation is especially cute.
And in case you want to cover all of your bases here is the Happy Everything design - perfect for families that celebrate or don't celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah or another holiday. There are also greeting cards that would be perfect for sending to business contacts.

One of the things you might be wondering about is price - you can send cards to up to 10 people for free in Trial Mode if you want to send more just purchase a monthly or yearly subscription based on how many invitations, announcements and digital greeting cards you think you'll be sending. Packages start at about $20.

HOLIDAY BONUS! Set up an online photo gallery that recaps the meaningful moments that made up your year to be included with your greeting at no additional cost.